Chicago Style Pizza Crust

Tonight was Elijah's night to cook and because he was excited about the meal, he actually helped make it! My goal with assigning each child a dinner night is for me to give them basic cooking skills so they don't starve when they leave home! My older kids are doing pretty well. They have a handful of favorites they make regularly without help and they are willing to pull out the recipe book and try things that I've never made! Today Elijah chose pizza. Since I told him we're not going to spend the money on buying pizza, he was all for making it!

A couple years ago I found this pizza crust recipe online and we've been loving it ever since! While helping Elijah measure the ingredients, he asked me if he could take this recipe with him when he grows up and leaves home. What a great compliment! Of course I told him yes and then thought about how cool it would be to give each of my kids a family cookbook of our favorite recipes as they leave home. We'll see if that actually happens. Then again, maybe if I get all the favorites on the blog I can simply print the pages for them.

Chicago Style Pizza Crust:

1 cup warm water

2 1/3 tsp yeast (1 packet)

2 tsp sugar

Whisk together and let the yeast sit for about 10 minutes, then mix together all of the following ingredients until soft:

3 cups flour

2 TBSP olive oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp salt

Once dough is soft, knead for 5 minutes, then place it in a well oiled bowl and let it rise 2-3 hours. Punch it down and roll out onto pizza sheets and let it rise again for about 10 minutes. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes. Makes 2 large crusts.

(I never let it rise for 2-3 hours, only long enough to prepare the other ingredients for the pizza. I also typically add some oregano or italian seasonings to the crust.)